Since moving to Sydney the boys have really enjoyed following the AFL (Australian Football League - aka that odd sport that you used to watch on ESPN2 in the middle of the night in college). We’re fans of Sydney and GWS (Greater Western Sydney), but enjoy watching just about any game. We especially enjoy watching Collingwood where Mason Cox, the only American in the AFL, is a ruckman and key forward. The Australian crew at the New York Times just did this super cool story on Cox.
As we've learned more about the sport - and recently attend a finals match of Sydney vs GWS - we've discovered that there are theme songs (aka fight songs) for each club.
As we've learned more about the sport - and recently attend a finals match of Sydney vs GWS - we've discovered that there are theme songs (aka fight songs) for each club.
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| Image courtesy 3AW.com.au |
Listed below (thank you, wikipedia!) are the songs for each team with our ratings (out of 10) for each and a short comment on the song. We hope you take the time to listen to a few of these (some will sound quite familiar to many of our American friends, though with different lyrics) and enjoy our take on the AFL theme songs!
Club name
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Name of team song
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Basis for team song
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M's take
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E's take
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Daddy's take
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Comments
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"The Pride of South Australia"
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5
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6
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7
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I keep expecting to hear “from the halls of Montezuma…” The first in an ongoing theme of, “hey, isn’t that song actually…”
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"The Pride of Brisbane Town"
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4
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5
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5
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Plays to the large contingent of French AFL fans.
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"We are the Navy Blues"
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1
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1
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4
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About what you’d expect for a club that calls themselves the Blues. Not the most exciting song choice.
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"Good Old Collingwood Forever"
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5
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7
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5
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Here we get introduced to the term “barrackers” which is a surprising synonym for “fans” since Aussies usually bias to shorter names. It’s the capsicum of sports terms.
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"See the Bombers Fly Up"
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4
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6
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6
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M: “I see why it says ‘up’ - it’s an airplane.” That about sums it up (pun intended).
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"Freo Way To Go"
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9
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9
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9
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A family favourite. That said, the intro sounds like something you’d hear the jews in egypt singing while building the pyramids.
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"We Are Geelong"
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7
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5
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4
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Starts w/ something like the rhythm of “nanny, nanny foo-foo.” Also, their coach is insanely intense. You do not want to mess w/ that guy.
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"We Are the Suns of the Gold Coast Sky"[3]
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Original
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7
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9
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7
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Our first original song. Too bad the team is terrible because this is a good song.
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"There's A Big Big Sound"[4]
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Original
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10
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10
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9
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We love this one. After listening to the song you need to check this clip out.
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"The Mighty Fighting Hawks" (also known as "We're A Happy Team At Hawthorn")
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5
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5
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5
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There’s just no way to make Yankee Doodle an intimidating song. But it’s fun to listen to.
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"It's a Grand Old Flag"
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8
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7
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7
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If you’re going to steal a song and make it about the colors red and blue, just take the Penn song.
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"Join in the Chorus"
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"Wee Deoch an Doris"[5]
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6
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6
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5
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Good, old timey song.
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"Power to Win"[6]
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Original
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9
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9
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10
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Another family favourite - nice work on the original song.
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"We're from Tiger Land"
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"Row, Row, Row"
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10
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10
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9
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Rumour has it that their barrackers only really know the words “yellow and black” (that’s really all you hear if you go to one of their games).
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"When the Saints Go Marching In"
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1
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2
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9
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Clearly, the kids and daddy don’t see eye-to-eye on this. How can you not like “When the Saints Go Marching In?!”
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"The Red and the White"
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9
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9
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9
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I love all of this. Except that it’s Notre Dame’s fight song!!! Since we cheer for Sydney, we know all the words - it pains me that we do. Because, again, Notre Dame!
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"We're Flying High"
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Original
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5
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5
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3
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Not the strongest start to the song. Doesn’t really do much after that.
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"Sons of the West"
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3
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2
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3
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It gives a good description of a bulldog. Not sure that makes for a strong fight song.
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